Monday, May 30, 2011

There is a lot of leftover randomness in my May photo file and a few tiny untold stories and May is nearly done, so I'm taking care of it all at once! :)

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I got my grades for this semester. Straight A's! :) It was a challenging semester for me, not so much because of the course content, but because I really had to stretch myself in certain classes because they were outside of my personal comfort zone. Storytelling was difficult for me, but I did well in it and my professor wrote on my final exam, "It is extremely (double underline) rare for someone to get a 100 on this type of exam! Beautiful work!" I'm also very proud of my work in Cancer Biology. I loved the content, did well in it, was commended by my professor, AND my semester project was chosen to be uploaded to GEOSET! That was waaaay out of my comfort zone, too, giving a presentation in a TV studio while being recorded...but I did it, and well enough evidently. :) Government was easy peasy for me. PreCal was a bit of a challenge because math isn't my strongest, but I think Storytelling was the most difficult for me overall. Finishing well in EVERYTHING feels really good.

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We are officially on snake #3. Snake #2 didn't do so well. He refused to eat the first 2 times we offered him food, and when he finally did eat, we found a regurgitated pinkie in his cage not long after. He died on day 13 of our 14 day warranty, so that was thoughtful of him. Anyway, seeing how ACTIVE Snake #3 is makes me wonder if Snake #2 was sick from the beginning. Snake #3 is a crazy guy and super fun to watch. We haven't handled him yet, because we want to let him settle in and not stress him, in case that was a factor in Snake #2 not eating well.

See? Snake #3 is a crazy man. Here he is almost ALL the way at the top of the cage, hanging out on the thermometer and hygrometer. Shortly after we took this, he slithered up to the top of the cage and found a lip at the very top and slithered around the edges...MUCH more active than Snake #2, who mostly hid under the bark 100% of the time. We're going to feed him tomorrow, hopefully he'll be a good eater! His name is currently Mars, named for the red planet.

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Look at my adorable little graduate!

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BubTar had his district GT Symposium last week. Here he is prepping his presentation on number patterns in nature...

All of the presenters had a bag for people to put comments in, I put one in BubTar's that said, "Most handsome presenter here! Great work on your project, too." On the way home, he was reading them out loud in the car and when he got to mine, he said, "Moooom!" Oops, I got busted. ;) Seriously, though, he WAS the most handsome...

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BubTar also graduated from Bears to Webelos at scouts this week. Last time he'll wear his blue kerchief!

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I love this next photo of KayTar...it is just SO KayTar. Josh snapped it at BubTar's presentation the other night.

May means swimming time in Texas (actually, they've been swimming since April)!!

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KayTar had another eye/headache yesterday afternoon. It came on suddenly and she thought it was over in a couple minutes, but it came back worse just moments later and she had to go lay in my dark room for a while. I gave her ibuprofen and she slept it off and woke up better a couple hours later. We're definitely looking forward to her headache clinic appointment in a few weeks!

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I think that about does it for May catch-ups! We're off to celebrate Memorial Day with more swimming and barbecue and then the kids' have their last full day of school tomorrow (followed by 2 half-days)...then May is DONE! Summer is right around the corner.

Friday, May 27, 2011

Today was KayTar's first field day! She's been in school for 3 years now, but she has only participated at the indoor Special Olympics athletic events. Josh and I were both nervous about it. KayTar fatigues easily when she is active AND/OR when she is in the heat. Since Field Day is active AND the heat here is actual 90's and 100's with the heat index, we were doubly worried. But I don't like to keep her from fun opportunities if I don't have to...so we decided to give it a shot, especially since I was able to be with her all day.

We packed her chilly pad, umbrella, a cold water spritzer bottle, and plenty of drinking water...and it went well! The part in the morning was totally fine, she just sat out of the sack race because it is beyond her physical abilities, and the afternoon was mostly okay, though she had to come in a bit earlier than her class because she was feeling too hot (she picked a chapter book from the library to read while we waited), and we opted out of going back outside for popsicles later. She didn't feel like she missed anything, so I'm glad we let her try and allowed her to set her own limits. On to the photos!

These next two are part of a series of KayTar and her best buddy from Kindergarten cracking up during one of the relays. They were passing a sponge down the line and after KayTar passed it to M, she would wipe her hands on his shirt and get it soaking wet. They were both being SO silly. I just LOVE these!

Monday, May 23, 2011

We arrived in Vegas around 5:30 Thursday evening...slightly later than planned because our plane arrived late and needed a part fixed after we boarded. We settled in at the Aria, wandered around the casino a bit and then went out for a walk.

We caught part of the show at the Bellagio while we were out and then explored the inside a bit.

After that, we headed back to our hotel to freshen up for our 8:30 reservation at Craftsteak. When we made the reservation, we didn't take the time change into account, so it was a SUPER late dinner for us...10:30pm our time. It was super late AND super expensive. Holy COW. Literally, because it was a steakhouse. ;) It was also super delicious. But the price...it was roughly the equivalent of 2 weeks of groceries! I don't know that we will EVER spend that much on a meal again, but it was definitely an experience. I had a ceasar salad (with three little anchovies on top, which I had to set aside while their headless bodies quietly judged me) and diver sea scallops with a Craft colada to drink. Josh has a warm frisee salad with bacon, poached egg, and blue cheese dressing, a ribeye, and a pineapple upside down cake cocktail. We shared fingerling potatoes and honey sautéed carrots. It was delicious and EXTRAVAGANT. We made a pact not to eat anywhere we have eaten before or that we could get at home while on vacation, so this fit the bill for sure. We played a few slots on the long waaaaalk back to Aria. We went to sleep around 11:30...which was 1:30 for us. A late night for us old married folks with kids!

We started the next day with coffee and pastries from the coffee shop and phone calls home to check on the kids. It was KayTar's kinder graduation morning and we were missing it (our trip was scheduled before the date was set)! My parents went so she had special people there who took photos and video for us. The school librarian sent me photos via text, how sweet is she? And I talked to KayTar after the ceremony, too. She was a little sad that some of the kids had balloons and flowers and she didn't, but my mom told her she would get something special at pick-up time. Wasn't she a beautiful graduate?!

After that was over, we headed out for the day. We walked back over the the MGM and took the monorail down to Harrah's and the Imperial Palace and wasted some time gambling before lunch at Hash House a Go-Go. Josh saw it on Man VS Food and he likes to plan vacations around at least one MVF meal. We had the sage fried chicken eggs benedict. It was YUM!

After lunch, we walked a LOT. We went to the Venetian and Mirage and back to Harrah's to grab the train back. We stopped at Bally's/Paris on the ride back and went back to Aria that way. I loved Paris...it was so cool inside. I was so tired and my knee was hurting so much that I didn't really take any photos inside. We crossed over to Bellagio and took the tram back to our hotel.

I was beat when we got back and my bum knee was being VERY bummy, so I elevated it (the only use for all those extraneous hotel bed pillows) and watched Law and Order while Josh went to get coffee for us. After recuperating, we went down to the casino for a while and then headed to NYNY for dinner, which we also loved! It was very cool inside. We ate at Broadway Burgers that night and it was good. Josh had a chicken burger with tomato, white cheddar, and a fried egg on it. I had a chicken burger with mozzarella, bruschetta, arugala, and a parmesan crisp on it.

After dinner, we gambled a little, mostly at our Munny slot, and then rode the roller coaster once our dinner settled. It was AWESOME! Great, great ride. Then we went down to Bellagio for the fountain show, and back to Aria, gambled a bit, and headed upstairs to soak my knee in the amazing bath.

On Saturday, we had coffee, got ready, and went to Monte Carlo for brunch. It was yummy! Then we gambled a bit and I won $55 at roulette, another $55 at the Munny slots, and then another $38 at the Munny slots before going up to pack and leave.

It was a fabulous trip and we are already ready to go back! It was great to spend some time together without all the busyness of normal family life, but I think next time, we may stay somewhere kid friendly and bring the kid's along...and maybe my parents so we have an evening sitter! :) Although, we've got a lot of saving to do before that happens!